Sheets or other webs of material are used in a variety of industries and in a variety of ways. These materials can include paper, multi-layer paperboard, and other products manufactured or processed in long webs. As a particular example, long sheets of paper can be manufactured and collected in reels.
It is often necessary or desirable to measure one or more properties of a web of material as the web is being manufactured or processed. Adjustments can then be made to the manufacturing or processing system to ensure that the properties stay within desired ranges. Measurements are often taken using scanners that move sensor heads containing sensors back and forth across the width of the web.
Scanners that are used in web manufacturing or processing systems often represent large structures with various components distributed throughout the structures. Unfortunately, a scanner typically cannot be tested until its various components are collected and assembled together into a complete functional unit. This often requires extensive time in a factory to ensure that all components (which have varying lead times) are available in the same factory location for testing as an integrated unit prior to shipment to a customer.